季节性促销的变迁外文翻译、中英对照、英汉互译

1、本科毕业论文外文文献及译文文献、资料题目：a seasonal sales shift文献、资料来源：期刊（著作、网络等）文献、资料发表（出版）日期：2011.06院 （部）： 商学院专 业： 工商管理班 级： 工商091姓 名： 学 号： 指导教师：翻译日期： 外文文献：a seasonal sales shift for bargain hunters, retailers make every day feel like christmasfor most of us, christmas in july is a phrase that conjures up images of co

2、ol times during summer heat waves or funny themes for a bbq get-together. but retailers are thinking of something much different. with fears of a renewed recession in the u.s. still in the air, stores across the country continue to be worried about flagging consumer confidence. as a result, consumer

3、s spending their days at the beach or camping in the backyard during staycations can now find the type of deep discounts usually offered during the winter holidays. in todays uncertain economic climate, it has bigger implications than ever - both for the retail sectors growth strategies and for cons

4、umer spending habits, say wharton and other business experts. with retailers pushing sales earlier and earlier and consumers waiting later and later to buy, baker retailing initiative managing director erin armendinger compares the situation to the childrens game of chicken. retailers, running on le

5、an inventories, have wanted to hold off - for as long as they could - offering the kinds of deep discounts they promoted last year. but their customers have been wary of buying something that wasnt on sale. if they paid full price or got only a minimal discount, they looked silly if the price of the

6、 product was marked down dramatically in a sale later. its this game of who was going to break down first. its not healthy for either side.playing up the value equationthe game might not be over. retail sales for july were down 0.2% from june, seasonally adjusted and excluding auto, gas and restaura

7、nt spending, according to the national retail federation (nrf). current data on the economy is mixed, which signals that retailers will continue planning with caution, jack kleinhenz, nrfs chief economist, said in a news release.chains, including target, home depot and lowes, reported jumps in profi

8、t for the second quarter, but the gains came despite weaker-than-expected revenue. wal-mart stores experienced a 3.6% increase in second quarter earnings, while raising its annual profit forecast. but sales at u.s. stores open for at least a year dropped 1.8% during that time, the fifth consecutive

9、quarterly decline in a metric that is considered an important test of a retailers performance.heading into a season considered crucial to their balance sheets, retailers planning could include more markdowns. and, adds hoch, the shift to earlier and earlier seasonal bargains is spread across the ent

10、ire retail sector. virtually every retailer - whether a luxury department store or a value retailer - is trying to play up the value equation. consumers expect that, he adds. there has to be some sort of a value proposition built into a product. that proposition may be more for the money or it may b

11、e better quality.while most retailers think that delivering value is synonymous with providing good customer service, there is also an element of one-upmanship between rivals in the sector. if you dont make a big markdown and someone else does, youre in trouble, hoch notes. you have to do it. at a t

12、ime like this, you will probably see more of it, just because consumers expect it.but those habits can ensnare retailers in a trap, cautions stevan buxbaum, executive vice-president of california-based retail consultancy buxbaum group. if one chain moves its sale three days ahead, then a competitor

13、will jump a week ahead. then they go 10 days ahead, and you go two weeks ahead . and it just keeps going. next years christmas season will start in the middle of january clearance at the rate they are going. the danger is that the continuous sales and markdowns often do more harm than good, putting

14、retailers in a position where they might have sold more units than a year ago, but for less money.the other big seasonthe summer sales are not just providing early christmas deals for bargain hunters. consumers are also are taking advantage of them for back-to-school shopping. we are encouraged by t

15、he fact that parents are eager to start their back-to-school shopping early this year, but the industry still remains cautiously optimistic about recovery, matt shay, president and ceo of the nrf, said in a news release.theres good reason for the reticence. research by the nrf found that a familys s

16、pending on back-to-school items, such as shoes, clothing, supplies and electronics, will increase this year to $606.40, from $548.72 in 2009. but the organization also found that more families are buying generic or store-branded products - 44.3% compared with last years 41.7%. some 70% of families w

17、ill be going to a discount store for all or part of their shopping.armendinger cautions that retailers who are crafting their christmas strategies shouldnt read too much into the back-to-school creep. traditionally taking place immediately before the holiday shopping season, back-to-school time shou

18、ld be looked at as a separate period, she says. people tend to think that the back-to-school season is a harbinger of how people spend for the holiday season, but that turns out to not always be the case, she adds, because parents might spread out their back-to-school purchases - buying notebooks, p

19、ens and other supplies before the new school year begins, and purchasing warmer clothes as the weather turns colder.there is also a relatively new item on school shopping lists that retail trend watchers need to take into account - electronics. with the rise of the great giant apple, you see people

20、diverting part of their back-to-school budget into electronics, armendinger notes. the world is a different place than when i was a kid. your parents are no longer just thinking about pens, pencils and rulers. they are also thinking are we going to buy our kid a new laptop? thats another big expendi

21、ture that may be taking up a big part of a familys budget. the risky business of inventory regardless of the season, many retailers have been adapting to the new consumer climate in other ways. for example, apparel retailers have been changing their supply chains and inventory as part of whats known

22、 as a wear now strategy. while in the past, suggests armendinger, retailers rolled out merchandise for a new season on a particular day - changing to displays of sweaters and corduroy pants in the height of summers heat - many are now offering a balance of clothing so people shopping in august can s

23、till find shorts and short-sleeved shirts. retailers started thinking . maybe there are people who simply shop later or shop when they have the money, armendinger points out. its definitely a balancing act, and its a new one for them.one of the long-term trends affecting retailers inventory has been

24、 the sourcing of more products from further afield, in low-cost countries such as china, according to marshall fisher, a wharton professor of operations and information management. that has made it harder to have the flexibility to match supply and demand, says fisher, co-author of a book titled, th

25、e new science of retailing: how analytics are transforming supply chains and improving performance. the heavy prevalence of markdowns is a result of the long-term trend as retailers work to improve how they match supply with demand.in the short term, fisher notes, retailers have hunkered down and ti

26、ghtened procurement and other budgets. he suggests such action may have helped some retailers avoid a strategy of dramatically low markdowns. but its risky, he warns. cutting back too deeply - not only on inventory, but also on staffing and hours - can lose customers. you buy too much inventory and

27、you die of a heart attack. youre too cautious and you could bleed to death.given the various risks, its not surprising that some companies havent hopped on the markdown bandwagon. apparel retailer abercrombie & fitch is a case in point, buxbaum suggests. abercrombie still isnt running sales, but it

28、has lowered prices coming out of the chute. it doesnt want to appear to be too expensive so its having more items at the lower price range than the higher price range to maintain that image, and saying, when this downturn is over, we still want to be abercrombie. we dont want to be a lower-price ret

29、ailer like american eagle.but abercrombie recently announced that it will close 60 of its 1,098 stores this year and 50 in 2011. the retailer, which mostly caters to teens, posted a 5% increase in quarterly same-store sales, but ceo mike jeffries told analysts in a conference call that the chains av

30、erage unit retail price was about 15% lower than in the second quarter of 2009.kicking the habitwhat happens when the economy does pick up? hoch predicts that it will take a long time before consumers return to their old shopping ways, and that they will need a lot of reinforcement to change. think

31、of how long it has taken to wean consumers off buying gas-guzzling cars, he points out, which are often less expensive than fuel-efficient ones but cost much more to keep running. as for how long the current markdown frenzy continues, hoch thinks it depends on two things: how long the downturn goes

32、on, causing people to form new habits, and how painful it is over that period.buxbaum agrees that a return to the old ways - occasional sales with conservative markdowns - wont happen overnight. when you train consumers to expect a discount - where they are not buying if its not 50% cheaper than the

33、 sticker price - that cycle takes some time to break. its not only consumers who will be readjusting. retailers will have to as well. pretty soon, every weekend will have a sale. what else are you going to do? he asks. if you stop doing it, people stop buying. its like a drug that you cant get off o

34、f.the changing seasonal shift doesnt have to be all bad news for a retailer, notes fisher. a bold retailer could use this opportunity to gain market share, if it has the guts. you could do things that could gain traction on the competition, including making sure you dont miss any sales and having go

35、od products in stock.but theres a twist. many studies of consumer behavior have found that in times of uncertainty - such as a recession - consumers make more impulse purchases, says katherine l. milkman, a wharton professor of operations and information management. its the retailing equivalent of c

36、omfort food. we cut back on everything, but then we are just more susceptible when we are faced with a choice between something hedonic and something non-hedonic, she says. with a choice between one and the other, uncertainty does enhance the likelihood that people are choosing the junk.中文译文：季节性促销的变

37、迁零售商让顾客觉得每天都像圣诞节 对大部分人来说，“七月圣诞节”这种说法会唤起我们这样的想象：盛夏时节热浪滚滚时的清凉时光，或者烧烤聚会时的可笑话题。但是，零售商对这个短语的想象则大相径庭。因为对二次衰退的担心情绪依然弥漫在美国，所以，全国的零售商店一直对消费者萎靡不振的信心感到担忧。其结果就是，在海边度假的人以及在家里后院露营“度假”的人现在都发现，商店出现了通常在冬季假期才会推出的大幅打折活动。 沃顿商学院和其他地方的零售业专家们认为，在今天这种经济气候很不稳定的时期，无论是对零售业的增长战略来说，还是对消费者的花费习惯而言，这种策略都比以前有着更多的意味。因为零售商的降价促销活动来得越来

38、越早，所以消费者也就把真正的购物时间推迟得越来越晚，杰伊贝克零售计划的常务董事埃林亚蒙丁泽将这种现象比作孩子们玩的“斗鸡博弈”游戏。零售商总是保留较少的库存，它们希望尽可能拖延去年那种大幅折扣活动的时间。但是，这些零售商的顾客却总是担心“买到没有降价销售的商品。如果他们购物时付了全价，或者只得到了很少一点折扣，可商品的价格在随后的降价促销中大幅降价了，那么，他们就会觉得自己很蠢。这是一种看谁先挺不住的游戏。不过，这个游戏对双方来说都是有害的。”大肆宣传价值等式或许，这个游戏还没有结束。全美零售商联合会（national retail federation，简称nrf）的数据显示，剔除季节性因素

39、，并将汽车、汽油以及餐厅的消费除去之后，7月的零售额比6月下降了0.2%。“目前的经济数据喜忧参半，这预示着零售商在做计划时依然会保持谨慎。” 全美零售商联合会的首席经济学家杰克克莱恩兹在一篇新闻稿中指出。尽管包括塔吉特、家得宝公司和劳氏公司在内的连锁商店报告称，第二季度的利润大幅增长，不过，收益的增长水平依然低于预期。沃尔玛商店第二季度的利润增长了3.6%，据此，公司调高了年度盈利预测。但是，在此期间，美国开业至少一年的商店的销售额则下降了1.8%，以人们公认的一种测评零售商表现的重要指标来衡量，这是零售额连续第五个季度出现下降。因为即将进入对它们的资产负债表至关重要的季度，所以，零售商的计

40、划可能会包括更多的减价促销活动。霍克补充谈到，减价销售变得越来越早的风潮正在扩散到整个零售行业。“几乎每个零售商无论是奢侈品百货公司，还是价值零售商（价值零售商通常指在较大卖场以大容量商品而不是靠标高售价挣取销售利润的零售商。译者注）都在大肆宣传价值等式，因为这就是消费者想要的。”他接着谈到。“商品中必须含有某种价值主张。这个主张可能是物超所值，也可能是更好的质量。”虽然大部分零售商都认为，传递价值就是提供良好的消费者服务的同义语，不过，在零售行业，竞争对手之间还存在着一个“胜出一筹”的问题。“如果你不大幅减价销售，可别人那么做了，那么，你就会陷入麻烦。”霍克谈到。“所以，你必须那么做在目前这

41、种形势下，你可能会看到更多的这类情形，因为这就是消费者想要的。”但是，这种习惯性行为也会让零售商陷入圈套，设在加利福尼亚州的零售咨询顾问机构巴克斯鲍姆集团的执行副总裁斯蒂万巴克斯鲍姆告诫说。“如果一家连锁商店将降价促销提前三天，那么，竞争对手可能便会提前一星期。如果竞争对手提前10天，那么，你就会提前两个星期零售商的促销时间会不断提前。”所以，“如果以这个速度进行下去”，下一年圣诞节的购物季就会“从1月中旬的清仓大减价开始了”。这种行为的危险在于，持续不断的大减价和低标价往往弊大于利，会将零售商推向这样一种境地“它们今年的销量超过了去年，可他们的收入却可能减少了。”其他的大降价季节对喜欢买便宜

42、货的人来说，夏季减价销售活动不只是让他们提前享受到了圣诞节的便宜，消费者还会将这种活动当作学生返校前的购物良机。“今年，父母们很早就迫不及待地开始了返校前购物，这个势头让我们感到鼓舞，但是，这个行业依然对复苏持谨慎乐观的态度。”全美零售商联合会的董事长和首席执行官马特沙伊在一篇新闻稿中指出。业界的谨慎是有充分理由的。全美零售商联合会在研究中发现，一个家庭在购买开学物品上的开销，也就是购买鞋、衣服、日用品以及电子产品的花费，从2009年的548.72美元，增长到了今年的606.40美元。但是，该组织还发现，购买一般品牌和商店品牌产品的家庭更多了，这种家庭今年占到44.3%，而去年则是41.7%。

43、大约70%的家庭会在折扣商店购买部分或者全部这类产品亚蒙丁泽告诫说，正在制订圣诞节销售战略的零售商，不应该过分解读返校前购物季的“蔓延”。从传统上来说，这个购物季出现在假期购物季即将到来的时候，不过，返校前购物季应该被视为一个单独的时期，她谈到。“人们倾向于认为，返校前购物季是人们在假期购物季如何消费的预兆，但事实表明，情况并非总是如此。”她接着谈到，因为父母们可能会把返校前购物的时间拉长，比如，在新学年即将开始的时候购买笔记本、钢笔和其他日用品，在天气变冷的时候才去购买保暖的衣服。开学前购物清单上还有一种值得零售趋势观察家给予重视的新东西，那就是电子产品。“随着伟大巨人苹果公司的不断成长，你

44、能看到，人们把返校前购物预算的一部分转变成了电子产品。”亚蒙丁泽谈到。“现在这个世界和我小时候已经完全不一样了。你的父母考虑的不再只是买钢笔、铅笔和尺子了（他们还会考虑）我们是不是该给孩子买台笔记本电脑？这是在家庭预算中可能占据很大比例的另一项大笔开销。”风险丛生的库存环节无论什么季节，很多零售商都能利用其它方式顺应消费者的新风尚了。比如说，作为“现在穿”战略的一部分，服装零售商改变了自己的供应链和库存。亚蒙丁泽谈到，过去，零售商会在某一天为下一个季节大量铺货在盛夏时节，将陈列的服装换成毛衣和灯芯绒的长裤，而现在，它们则会均衡陈列各种服装，这样，人们在8月仍然可以买到短裤和短袖衬衫。“零售商想的是或许，有人购买服装的时间就是较晚（意指购买当季的衣服，而不是提前购买。），或者会等到有钱的时候才来购买。”亚蒙丁泽谈